France’s Queen Mother Was Even Deadlier Than We Thought D
Katherine deichi was only 14 when she married Henry the son of King Francis and although she was young the king and other older men insisted on being present for the consummation of the marriage within a month of her birth illness killed both of Catherine’s parents for the rest of her childhood the vulnerable medich arys would be shuffled between relatives and con vent to protect her from the family’s enemies in an increasingly volatile Italy Catherine’s fortunes shifted when her Uncle Julio deichi became Pope Clement iith Clement brought his young niece to live in an extravagant Palace in Florence where the people took to fondly calling her the little Duchess medich power in Florence Came Crashing Down in 1527 Cardinal Sylvio passerini overthrew Pope Clement and suddenly Catherine’s peaceful childhood was thrown into chaos
once again passerini’s forces took Catherine hostage and sent her off to live alone in a series of [Music] convents the pope was desperate to regain his power and he was willing to make a deal with the devil for it he begged Charles the king of Spain for help in return he promised to Crown Charles the Holy Roman Emperor in 1530 anti medich armies flanked the nunnery where young Catherine took Refuge the public debated whether the 11-year-old arys should simply be killed or sent to a house of ill repute to devalue her in the Pope’s marriage plans thankfully Florence surrendered that same year before any real harm could come to Catherine Clement had gotten her safely out of Florence and now it was time to find his young orphan niece a husband contemporaries loved to highlight that
Katherine deichi was no great Beauty even in her youth a Venetian Envoy described her as small of stature and thin and without delicate features but having the protruding eyes peculiar to the medich family Pope Clement hit the jackpot when the king of France Francis I offered up his second son for marriage to Young Catherine Francis didn’t realize at the time but he had just invited a Viper to the French court and the country would never be the same the wedding of Katherine deichi and Henry Duke of Orleans was a ludicrously extravagant Affair the French and Italians exchanged expensive gifts ate exotic foods and partied late into the night despite their magical wedding Katherine deichi and Henry didn’t see much of each other in their first year of marriage the jukes spent his time traveling the countryside while
Catherine stayed in the Wolf’s Den among the ladies of the court but Catherine was a Michi she was born to play The Game of Thrones she impressed the court with her wit and tact and quickly settled into the pace of Affairs in 1534 Catherine’s beloved Uncle Pope Clement iith passed away and in an instant Catherine’s link to Rome disappeared and she was suddenly a lot less important then Clement’s successor Pope Paul III made things even worse by refusing to pay the enormous Dy that Clement had promised in a matter of days Catherine’s standing at the French Court had completely changed her husband was never meant to become king of France but things could change extremely quickly in a Renaissance Court in 1536 the heir to the throne Henry’s older brother Francis
was playing a game of tennis when he started feeling ill within days he was dead shocking Europe and thrusting Henry into the lane of succession all of a sudden the young orphaned Michi girl found herself in line to become the queen of France and Dark Rumors soon began to swirl many found it hard to believe that Francis a young man in the prime of his life could fall ill and die so suddenly a single word began to circulate throughout the corners of the French aristocracy poison and who would have more motive than the upstart makavelian Michi in their midst though Catherine was never found to have orchestrated francis’s death one of her Entourage was not so lucky Sebastiano de Monto Koli who arrived in France with Catherine confessed to poisoning the prince under duress his admission was enough for King
Francis who had him drawn and quartered after 10 years of childless marriage in which people started to question Catherine’s fertility the couple went on to have a whopping 10 kids between 1544 and 1556 seven of them survived infancy during this period in 1547 Francis the first died and Henry became king for years Catherine’s greatest rival was Dean detier her husband’s most beloved mistress Henry made no effort to hide the fact that he preferred deti to his wife this must have been infuriating for Catherine but then Henry took it even further he gave DEA the luxurious chatau de shenon So Not only was he giving his mistress an entire Castle but cine had explicitly told him that she had wanted
that particular castle for herself in 1559 King Henry signed a peace deal with the Holy Roman Empire and England putting an end to the Italian Wars that had been raging for years to seal the treaty once and for all Henry betrothed his daughter Elizabeth to Philip II of Spain an elaborate wedding was planned to celebrate the new found peace little did anyone realize that wedding would end in tragedy King Henry was quite the jouster so of course he felt the need to show off his talents at his daughter’s wedding in a clash with a young nobleman disaster struck Henry took a lance to the face shattering the massive wooden weapon and covering his face in splinters pouring blood and with shards of wood sticking out of his face the King was a gruesome
sight Catherine Dean deti and Katherine’s El the son Francis all fainted upon seeing him Henry was rushed to a surgeon but his injuries were even worse than they appeared surgeons removed five massive splinters from Henry’s head but the damage was done they had pierced his eye and brain two things you’re famously not supposed to pierce with massive splinters he eventually lost his sight and the ability to speak and on July 10th 1559 he he died at the age of 40 Catherine was devastated her eldest son Francis II came to the throne at just 15 years old though he was technically an adult he was hardly equipped to rule on his own and since Catherine was still grieving a power void developed one that two devious brothers from the house of geize
were quick to fill and what essentially amounted to a the brothers geese moved into the Lou and took their place as advisers to the young king Francis was the king in name but everyone knew the Dark Truth the geese brothers were in control but for how long once Catherine had recovered from the shock of her husband’s death she found the GES in near complete control of her son’s Kingdom at this point she had no choice but to work with the youth serers since she didn’t have any real power yet Catherine’s son Francis was never a robust child and evidently the pressures of being King only made things worse less than a year after he was crowned he contracted a painful infection and found himself on death’s door Catherine was
heartbroken but she knew she had to act fast to ensure her next son could claim his throne by the time Francis Di died Catherine had done enough political maneuvering to have the Royal Council name her governor of France for the first time she had real political power according to rumors Catherine had a stable of about 80 beautiful ladies whom she would deploy to the beds of various courtiers for Espionage and information networking on top of that she employed many magicians and Sorcerers as well one of the most famous was kosimo rugeri everyone in Paris knew of him the Queen’s trusted Necromancer and specialist in the dark arts Charles the 9th was technically the king but Catherine was the real power her rule was marked by brutal religious violence Catholics wanted Protestants
persecuted while Protestants wanted the freedom to practice their religion the tensions had been bubbling for the better part of a century but when Catherine came to power they finally exploded even once Catherine became governor of France the Duke of geese still held considerable Sway in the French Court Catherine mostly put up with him but she would pay the price for her [Music] patience in 1562 gize and his men committed the brutal Massacre of vasi they attacked a group of Protestants known as hugos while they had been worshiping in church when the violence finally settled down 74 hugos lay dead and another 104 wounded gize had no idea what he had just begun the massacre of vassi sparked the French Wars of religion the defining conflict
of Katherine dadich’s lifetime Catholic and Hugo armies would tear the French Countryside apart for nearly 30 years and Catherine her children and the rest of the French royal family were in the middle of it Katherine dimichi took a remarkably Hands-On approach to the French Wars of religion she could often be found visiting the field herself to manage Affairs when one of her generals told her that the battlefield was no place for a woman she laughed and coldly replied my courage is as great as yours the St Bartholomew’s Day Massacre is the darkest stain on Katherine dadich’s already disturbing record as fears of Hugo reprisals grew King Charles finally made a grim order kill them all Catholics took to the streets with a vicious Glee and things quickly spiraled out of
control The Killing started in Paris but quickly spread to the countryside no Hugo was safe estimates on the total number of Protestants killed range from 5,000 to upwards of 30,000 the massacre completely crippled the source of Hugo power and marked a crucial turning point in the French Wars of religion towards the end of his life Charles the 9th became emotionally unstable he would fluctuate from boasting about the body count of the St Bartholomew’s Day Massacre to being guilt consumed by the atrocities to Simply blaming his mother for being the cause of it all ever the Practical parent Catherine declared she had a lunatic for a son there was never a dull moment in 16th century French society just a couple years after the massacre Catherine faced a new tragedy and a new crisis following in the footsteps of his
brother Charles the 9th died of illness at just 23 years old Catherine was forced to bury yet another one of her children but Charles would not be the last next up for the throne was Katherine deich ‘s favorite son Henry jovanu Katherine’s youngest son Francis was always the black sheep of the family known mysteriously as Monsur Francis was initially far down in the lane of succession no one ever expected him to amount to much but suddenly with Charles dead and Henry lacking children Monsur suddenly found himself nexted up to sit on the throne but rather than come home and do his duty Francis betrayed his mother and laid waste to everything she had accomplished in 1576 Francis did the unthinkable he allied with the Protestants against his brother and
mother the unlikely Alliance forced Catherine to sign the humiliating Edict of Bui giving in to Hugo demands for the first time in years unsurprisingly she was utterly furious with her rebellious son but despite his treachery she was still utterly devastated when fate came to claim him as well Francis was the next of Katherine dadich’s children to Die Young and his death put her entire Legacy at risk Francis was the last of her sons and since King Henry had no children now Henry III of Navar her daughter’s husband sat next in Lane everything that Catherine had built was quickly falling apart around her now that Henry of Navar was heir to the French throne her daughter Margaret Henry’s wife was more important than ever but Margaret was even more rebellious than Monsur had
been Margaret’s constant Affairs had been a problem before she married Henry III of naar and let’s just say marriage did little to settle her down when Margaret returned to the French Court in 1582 her mother furiously confronted her about her dalliances Katherine dadich’s Fury was always something to behold and her screams could apparently be heard echoing throughout the palace Catherine sent Margaret back to Navar to be with her husband the Future King of France but apparently Catherine’s yelling hadn’t straightened out the rebellious Margaret soon after she left Navar yet again fleeing to an estate in the French Countryside then she had the audacity to write to Catherine and beg for money disgusted Catherine sent her daughter only enough money to eat yet somehow Margaret wasn’t done making a mess of things she took yet another
lover a man named Doak this was the final straw Catherine was done with her daughter’s Antics after finding out about Doak Catherine had her daughter locked up in a castle and cut out of her will completely she never saw Margaret again as far as Catherine was concerned her child was dead to her Catherine’s plans for what to do with Doak were too cruel even for her son King Henry Henry had Doak executed but not as Catherine had wanted in front of Margaret Henry III valued his mother’s advice that is until her final days Catherine had contracted a lung infection and was left bedridden while she was fighting for her life she had no idea that her son was plotting to cut her off from power for good in 1588 Henry fired every single
one of his advisers with no warning many of them had been in Catherine’s pocket and this stunning move left Catherine with next to no influence in court after dismissing all of his mother’s cronies the Duke of geize was one of the last people between Henry and absolute power Catherine had already warned him that getting rid of geize would be a disaster but Henry wanted blood in December 1588 Henry invited geize to visit him in his Chambers on his arrival he found the king’s personal bodyguard waiting for him they set upon him with their swords and at that very instant the rest of the Gee’s family were being rounded up and killed as well for the first time in his life Henry had completely disregarded his mother and acted on his own accord and he would pay a price for it the murder of the Duke of geize done
expressly against Katherine’s wishes took place directly above the bed chamber where she Lay Dying after the deed was done King Henry ventured downstairs and broke the news to his mother himself please forgive me Monsur deiz is is dead he will not be spoken of again I have had him killed I have done to him what he was going to do to me Catherine died mere days later and some believed that the shock of her son’s actions were the Tipping Point after laying waste to the geese family Henry rounded up several other people whom he considered political enemies a mere eight months after Katherine’s death Karma came knocking at Henry III’s door The Purge of his political enemies did little to settle the chaos in the French court and he was eventually stabbed to death by a Catholic fanatic after the death of Catherine and
her final son Henry III Katherine’s son-in-law seized the throne as Henry IV of France however he promptly annuled his marriage to Catherine’s daughter Margaret and replaced her with Catherine’s own cousin Marie dimichi Katherine dimichi played the Game of Thrones and played it well for decades but like many French Nobles she ended up in an extremely ignoble resting place Catherine’s bones along with those of many other French kings and queens were dug up during the French Revolution and unceremoniously tossed into a mass grave Katherine dimichi got a disturbing introduction to the world of French Politics on her wedding night she and Henry were the same age both 14 years old but old men still wormed their way into the honeymoon Henry’s father King Francis I 1 apparently stayed in the bedroom until the marriage was fully
consummated Katherine’s Uncle Pope Clement had a little bit more class at least he visited the couple in bed the next morning to confirm the previous night’s proceedings gross if you enjoyed this video please give it a like and subscri subscribe for more videos
